Last thursday, Rita Verdonk (former minister) was evicted from her party. Mark Rutten and the VVD were finally sick of Rita's contiuous attempts to undermine the leadership and structure of the party. In itself, this little three-line newsbyte might not be THAT interesting. However, I feel that finally, with the expulsion of Rita, we have killed off the very dutch "poldermodel"For the uninitiated (read: non-dutch), the poldermodel is a form of government which was very popular in the Netherlands in the 1990s. In essence, it said that everyone... and i do mean EVERYONE.. had to have their say in the decision-making proces. Now, this sounds fantastic and extremely democratic, but in practice it meant: meetings that go on for days... and ultimately: indecisiveness.
So we find ourselves with a tricky dilemma. A compromise must be reached between democracy and decisiveness. A compromise not easily made! Tempers run high and views are as diverse as the people who fight to support them. So where do we stand?
last thursday, Rita voiced her opinion. One could argue as to the motivation of her argument. It is no secret that she wants to obtain leadership of the VVD and therefore, undermining the current leader Mark Rutten can be considered to her advantage. But motivation does not disqualify an argument. The poldermodel would allow her to have her say no matter what the outcome is, wether it be indecisiveness or the fulfilment of an ambition. But political Holland has made a decision. Rita is expelled from the party... the poldermodel is now officially dead. to be filed in the large cabinet of failed experiments. Lets just hope we are left with proper decisiveness, because decisiveness doesn't necessarily mean the right decisions are made.
Jeroen Breukels
